how to best handle scripting
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| Tue, 09-13-2005 - 5:52pm |
My son often repeats chunks of videos. I usually try to redirect his behavior. Recently, I have wondered if it would be better to ignore it. Maybe I am reinforcing it by paying attention to it.
Example - He starts scripting about a picnic. I might offer to get the play food and play picnic. Or I might look at the sky and say "Oh yes, you're right, today is the perfect day for a picnic." Or i might try to distract him by saying, "Let's play trains."
Now I am wondering if I am giving it too much attention. He sometimes will repeat behaviors just for attention. Example - Lately he has been announcing "I'm going to hit the boy" repeatedly whenever another child is in sight - playgrounds, stores, playdates, etc. However, he hasn't done a bit of that at school which leads me to believe he is just doing it because I reponded strongly the first few times.
Any thoughts on how to best handle scripting?
Chrissy

Chrissy,
Scripting or echolalia is common with our kids. I guess the key question: Is it is functional or not?
Some kids use echolalia it as a kind of a stim, which is non-functional as language, but performs a fuction as a stim. You should treat non-functional echolalia as you would any other stim.
Some kids use echolalia to communicate (functional echolalia). A good example being Peter when he was about 4.5, to his sister, who had just spilled a big tub of beads all over the floor. "Now Look what you did" (said the fish to the cat) "Look at this mess. Look at this. Look at That!" (appropriate pointing). So he was quoting 'The cat in the hat' verbatim (with an Irish accent LOL), but modified and used it appropriately. This is functional echolalia, which should be encouraged. Most functional echolalia is not quite as obvious or direct as that example.
Many kids use both, which can be tricky.
Peter used to so a similar thing to the "hit the boy" story, except he would punch himself in the face -just to get a reaction. After my initial shock, I chose to COMPLETELY ignore this behaviour and sure, enough; he tried to escalate it by hitting himself harder, realised it hurt, came to me for sympathy, got NONE, and stopped that behaviour completely after a few attempts. (OK it resurfaced later, but let's not go into that here)
Now, your situation is different, because the natural escalation point is to carry out the threat, which involves hurting anoher child. In your situation, I would casually explain the consequences of carrying out that threat (and of not), and casually leave the choice up to him. Should he choose to follow through with the threat, I would carry out the consequences immediately to the full extent, and remind him that it was HIS choice to have this happen.
Example:
"I'm goign to hit the boy",
"Well, you may want to think about that. Because if you hit the boy, I will take you straight home to your room for a timeout right now, However, if you say hello nicely to he boy, we can stay here and play and you can have a treat after dinner." "Which do you want to do: Hit the boy and go home, or say hello and stay?" (start packing in anticipation, and get ready to grab his arm, because if he is anything like my son, this will be tested at least once)
Immediately reward "good" choices. Say if he said hello, praise him and maybe even give him a little treat. The "treat afer dinner thing" (or whatever) is something we use to re-enforce things later, so we can tell Daddy why he got a treat and he can get praised all over again. So good behaviours get rewarded more than once, and in different locations, as a way to try and generalise them.
Sorry to write a novel. HTH
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Chrissy,
Nathan also uses echolalia in daily conversations. He uses, as Paula said....functional echolalia. He does use it in the right context, so most people don't pick up on him borrowing phrases. You really have to know "where" he got the phrase from. Tyler usually will announce to us where he got the line from!!
I also do what Paula suggested, praising the kids when they do something. When he says something appropriately or if he does something, without throwing a tantrum.....I praise him. He loves that.
I let Nathan borrow his phrases. I figure it's great....he's talking!!! Every once in awhile he will say something that HE thought to say....and NOT use a phrase that he's heard before. It rarely happens.....but it's nice. I look at it as Nathan wanting to say the right thing at the right moment.....but not knowing how, so he chooses a phrase that he knows! It depends on the day and whether he's stressed. The more stressed, the more phrases.
Michelle
We hear lots of echolalia in stress situations. Weston used to speak almost exclusively w/ echolalia when he was 3-5. He now uses his own words much of the time and often sounds like a little professor. We decided that as long as he was using things in correct context we didn't care where the words actually came from, he was communicating his wants and needs.
I usually ignore inappropriate attention seeking echolalia/scripting unless he's actually going to hurt someone else or himself. I do exactly what Paula said, make sure he understands that he has a choice and he'll face the consequences if he makes the wrong choice. He probably won't have to make that wrong choice more than once!
Betsy
MIke used, uses both functional and stim echolalia. Lately he uses less functional echolalia because his language and stress is much better. Mike has great langauge but will use echolalia when he is stressed or overstimulated, often appropriately. Often so much so that most people don't notice. I can usually pick it up right away because his voice changes. He either does the actual voice or more often his little robot type voice. But I often miss it too.
If it is a stim then I don't really redirect it unless it is interfering with what he is doing or driving the rest of us mad! He loves to do this in the car with the same line over and over LOUDLY.
I will say that he uses it much less as he gets older and better at communicating.
Renee
DS uses functional and nonfunctional echolalia. Lots of functional and also lots of the stimming kind - on the increase lately. Actually, he has been stuck on cat in the hat a lot lately.
About the hitting thing.....we have already left playgrounds four times! He is a highly persistent kid. LOL. I guess the only thing to do is stick with it until the phase passes, but this one really pushes my buttons. Yesterday at K-Mart he kept saying "I'm going to hit the baby" (lovely) and I was saying a little prayer that noone else could understand him.
I think part of what bothers me is he says it again and again and again. So, as I respond to the first statement with my consequence/choice message and ignore the next fifty times he says it, I am sure other parents are thinking that he is saying that and I am doing nothing. But yesterday he was in the shopping cart and I knew he couldn't hurt anyone.
Chrissy
>>>You should treat non-functional echolalia as you would any other stim<<<
So, how do you treat stims in general? We are new to all this, and up to now I just ignore them, unless she's just getting out of control.
TIA
Mary
Mary,
Sorry for the delay in replying. It's been a crazy week.
Basically, I think you have the right idea, and my mantra on this board is "follow your gut".
I don't have time for a long post right now, so I bumped up a recent thread about stims. Actually, here is the link:
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-pspddnos&msg=5182.9&ctx=0
If you have search capabilities, you can search this boad for "stim" and you will probably get a lot of hits.
Sorry for the bail-out. I hope this helps.
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com